ESPN and the plague of misinformation

In this Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, file photo, the Dallas Cowboys, led by owner Jerry Jones, center, take a knee prior to the national anthem and an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, in Glendale, Ariz. ESPN anchor Jemele Hill has been suspended by the network for two weeks for making political statements on social media. Hill, who is African-American, received criticism from the network last month after referring to President Donald Trump as a “white supremacist.” On Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, Hill targeted Jerry Jones, after the Dallas Cowboys owner stated that players who disrespect the flag would not play for his team. less

In this Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, file photo, the Dallas Cowboys, led by owner Jerry Jones, center, take a knee prior to the national anthem and an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, in Glendale, ... more

Photo: Matt York /Associated Press

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This is a Feb. 3, 2017, file photo showing Jemele Hill attending ESPN: The Party 2017 in Houston, Texas. ESPN anchor Jemele Hill has been suspended by the network for two weeks for making political statements on social media. Hill, who is African-American, received criticism from the network last month after referring to President Donald Trump as a “white supremacist.” On Monday, oct. 9, 2017, Hill targeted Jerry Jones, after the Dallas Cowboys owner stated that players who disrespect the flag would not play for his team. less

This is a Feb. 3, 2017, file photo showing Jemele Hill attending ESPN: The Party 2017 in Houston, Texas. ESPN anchor Jemele Hill has been suspended by the network for two weeks for making political statements ... more

Photo: John Salangsang /Associated Press

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In this Sept. 12, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump waits outside the West Wing of the White House for the arrival of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, in Washington. ESPN anchor Jemele Hill has been suspended by the network for two weeks for making political statements on social media. Hill, who is African-American, received criticism from the network last month after referring to President Donald Trump as a “white supremacist.” On Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, Hill targeted Jerry Jones, after the Dallas Cowboys owner stated that players who disrespect the flag would not play for his team. less

In this Sept. 12, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump waits outside the West Wing of the White House for the arrival of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, in Washington. ESPN anchor Jemele Hill has been ... more

It is, however, a troubling example of how, in an age where the world’s information is available to everyone instantly, we still get stuff wrong.

Social media has fueled fear and brought down a plague of misinformation on the land. Fake news travels faster than the real thing. For some, the subconscious acts as a bricklayer, using fiction and a little bit of fact to build an impenetrable wall of rhetoric to entomb the narrative that works for them.

The cable sports behemoth became a target for conservatives in 2015 when it gave the Arthur Ashe Courage award to transgender woman Caitlyn Jenner. A year later, ESPN fired conservative baseball analyst Curt Schilling for repeated violations of the company’s social media policy.

The network has covered issues of race, including former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s controversial protest during the national anthem last season and that of other players this season. Some on-air personalities have supported the protests.

On Monday, anchor Jemele Hill was suspended for criticizing Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones’ stance opposing anthem protests and suggesting a boycott of his sponsors. Hill was previously reprimanded for tweeting that President Donald Trump is a white supremacist.

The network stands by its actions and editorial mission.

“ESPN is about sports,” company president John Skipper wrote to employees this week. “Last year, we broadcast over 16,000 sports events. We show highlights and report scores and tell stories and break down plays.

“And we talk about sports all day every day. Of course, sports is intertwined with society and culture, so ‘sticking to sports’ is not so simple. When athletes engage on issues or when protests happen in games, we cover, report and comment on that.”

Conservatives feel the network is being one-sided, so they have fought back, which is their right. They believe their protests are successful in punishing ESPN. They may end up winning the war, but as of right now, there’s nothing to support their claim.

Losing viewers? That’s partially true, but not because of this.

The pay television industry has been circling the drain for nearly a decade, losing millions of viewers, said Jan Dawson, a consumer technology analyst.

That trend predates the Jenner controversy and the right wing’s beef with ESPN by eight years.

Exact numbers of lost pay-TV viewers are hard to pin down. Dawson, citing reports at his disposal, says the industry has lost four million households since 2013, when pay TV was at its peak penetration. Other sources put the losses as high as 22 million viewers lost over 10 years.

“The challenge has been measuring it,” Dawson said, “because it started while pay TV was still growing.”

Regardless of the numbers, the trail of lost subscribers does not end in Bristol.

All cable and satellite providers sell basic packages which can’t be customized. Nearly all include ESPN. Canceling cable isn’t always a statement about ESPN.

Cord-cutting is behind many of the losses, Dawson says, with millions of viewers paying for cheaper streaming services such as SlingTV, Hulu, YouTube TV and DirecTV NOW.

Again, numbers are sketchy, but as many as 16 million may subscribe to one or more streaming services. Yet even that doesn’t make the case against ESPN, since all but one of those services carry the network in their basic service tiers.

Nor is ESPN losing money.

Network profit dipped 3 percent this year. The company still made a lot of money; it’s just making less in 2017. And it’s still valuable. In May, analysts estimated the network’s value at $50 billion, largely because of huge deals with the NFL, NBA, NCAA and other leagues.

All content providers are in the same boat, more or less, as ESPN. Production costs are up, while they are losing viewers. All are struggling with ways to measure streaming service viewership.

“The hope is that if this is only about viewing shifting,” Dawson said, “you can still make money as long as you can measure the traffic.”

Once online viewership can be verified, it’s possible ESPN will discover the political pushback has weight to it. As of now, however, it’s unproven.

The real threat to ESPN is bad programming, as the network abandons sports reporting and the insider information that fans crave.

The network has laid off 400 employees since 2016 as it turns itself into a personality-driven and sports debating channel.

Early returns aren’t good. The shows are largely repetitive and irrelevant, with hours spent riffing over and dissecting the same popular YouTube clips as if they were the Zapruder film.